“One-term president” wasn’t the only thing Newt Gingrich had to say about Barack Obama. There was also this:

“I think he will replace Jimmy Carter as the worst president of modern times,” said Gingrich.

Gingrich apparently doesn’t feel very much need to stay on top of the news, not even political news. When it comes to the the worst president of modern times, Gingrich obviously managed to miss this very widely reported recent development:

However, President George W. Bush did not fare well… He dropped 16 places to 39th, making him the worst president since Warren Harding died in office in 1923, and one of the bottom five of all time, according to the experts …

It is, of course, totally incomprehensible that anyone in the political business could have missed the results of that Siena Research Institute poll. But Gingrich must have missed it, because one can scarcely credit the notion that Newt Gingrich might be uttering deliberate falsehoods for political purposes.

The Siena Research Institute has been conducting its poll of presidential scholars since 1982. In all that time, I’m pretty sure, no recent president has dropped 16 places from one poll to the next.

I’m so impressed by that unprecedented performance that I’m willing to bet Bush has a lock on the title of the worst president of modern times for the foreseeable future.

Except for one caveat. I don’t see Gingrich ever becoming president. But if he does, I’m not sure I could continue to back Bush over Gingrich.